The NVIDIA Blog has a video of the Unreal Engine 3 running on a tablet under Windows RT and explaining how easily developers will be able to port their Windows and Xbox games. "The Unreal Engine 3-powered ‘Epic Citadel’ demonstration for Windows RT tablets implements our full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials, all running beautifully on Tegra 3," said Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games. "By porting the full engine as opposed to a modified mobile version, NVIDIA and Epic have made it easy for UE3 developers around the world to bring their best content to Windows RT, Windows 8, and NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 processor. Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now and we’re excited to see the great games they develop with it."

Err I meant scaring Apple. They have some of the most successful and profitable items across a few very important growth markets, not to mention a ridiculous amount of control on their supply chain. Their uptake in the desktop market could not possibly matter less.

I have no love for Apple either but making allusions that this will affect them in any way are just silly. "A lot can happen" right uh, thanks.

Heh, not really planning on scaring anyone. Just saying what I think about Apple. Has really no effect beyond the statement itself. I simply won't buy Apple products of any kind but that is to be expected...

And the biggest company? No, they are only valued high on the stock market, apple has a 0.5% market share with MacOSX on desktops and servers. They only have about 50% of the smart phone market and less than 33% of the tablet market. And smart phones are a constantly changing thing, tablets are still finding their reason of existence. So a lot can happen ;p

Beamer wrote on Aug 29, 2012, 17:27:But why? A mouse and keyboard defeats the whole thing (except for the full Win8 tablet, which should have a docking station.)

Tablet users aren't really looking for AAA games. The last thing they really want is Skyrim. They're more looking for quick games that are easy to learn, hard to master, good in short bursts and don't always require 100% of your concentration.

May that shift? Probably will shift. But, for the time being, Angry Birds, Tower Defenses, Where's My Water, and Words With Friends will dominate.

There are also bluetooth gamepads if you want, but besides that, ya. Not a lot of people will WANT to play Skyrim on a tab. I would like to see tablets be more of a 3rd screen, in that it could have components of the AAA game, but not all of it, that would complement the game.

Lets take Skyrim as an example. The tablet can be a map, a live inventory, character status, and many other things while your playing on the PC. On the go, maybe you have some more simple aspects of Skyrim that would still progress your game. These things would be small missions that are quick to play and give you some type of reward to progress your character.

On something like an MMO, it could be the auction house, raid organizer, city planner, map, or again you can do simple questing while your mobile.

I dont see tablet's substituting PC gaming, but complementing and expanding it.

The Half Elf wrote on Aug 29, 2012, 15:30:Skyrim is NOT a Unreal Engine game.

Your correct. It uses the "Creation Engine". There are still many other UE3 based games that WinRT can now port though. Its hard to make a AAA game for any single device, but when you can make an easy port, then we will see a lot more AAA titles hit mobile platforms (with WinRT). The big problem is the UI. Touch based FPS games just sux. Thats why I said WinRT has USB. You can hook up a mouse and keyboard and be happy!!!

But why? A mouse and keyboard defeats the whole thing (except for the full Win8 tablet, which should have a docking station.)

Tablet users aren't really looking for AAA games. The last thing they really want is Skyrim. They're more looking for quick games that are easy to learn, hard to master, good in short bursts and don't always require 100% of your concentration.

May that shift? Probably will shift. But, for the time being, Angry Birds, Tower Defenses, Where's My Water, and Words With Friends will dominate.

Beamer wrote on Aug 29, 2012, 13:45:However, how big of an advantage is this? There haven't been as many UE3/UDK iOS games as expected, and does anyone really say "man, I need to buy an iPad for Infinity Blade!" I doubt it. It's a huge seller, but it isn't a system seller. It's just a cool perk.

There haven't been as many UDK games because unlike what the fanboi tech press keeps saying, iOS games are the money presses many think (unless you happen to be Rovio or a handful of others who got lucky). You can make money there as an indie (though the vast majority lose it) but most games on the platform don't make a ton, certainly not enough to justify the staff and resource costs necessary to make it in Unreal Engine 3. That's why most developers are making smaller games that either aren't in 3D at all or use cheaper engines like Unity. I think Camoflag is going to get a rude awakening with Republique, which they are billing as a "AAA iOS game". I can almost guarantee it will sell better on PC than iOS and I'd be surprised if it makes money there (beyond the Kickstarter sales of course). The press is so interested in only focusing on the iOS success stories that they're ignoring problems the platform has. Seeing UE3 running on an iPad is very cool but most devs can't take the budget risks in developing games that use it.

Well, you're part right.Unity over UE3 isn't much of an advantage, because UDK is free and/or cheap. But you are correct about dev costs being high, obviously. Creating 3D models is time consuming. Creating cheap animations for Angry Birds is not.

The Half Elf wrote on Aug 29, 2012, 15:30:Skyrim is NOT a Unreal Engine game.

Your correct. It uses the "Creation Engine".

No it doesn't. It uses a 2006 version of Gamebryo. The "Creation Engine" was a bullshit lie Todd Howard fed to people to make them think Skyrim was running on an all-new engine when it was in fact still the same, ancient, buggy tech they've been using since Morrowind.